Nightmare Before Halloween
by SadameHime
Summary: They thought she was dead, thats why they call Deadly Nightshade what it is. She just happens to be the most powerful, and most feared Witch to ever walk the Streets of Halloween Town, and she's back to take what she lost, as well as someone's heart...
1. Chapter 1

Nightmare Before Halloween

Disclaimer: I don't Own Nightmare Before Christmas, but I do own the game! XD

Summary: They thought she was dead, thats why they call Deadly Nightshade what it is. She just happens to be the most powerful, and most feared Witch to ever walk the Streets of Halloween Town, and she's back to take what she lost after leaving for freedom. Not only Halloween Town, but the heart of the only one who wasn't scared...

Chapter 1: Nightshade's Return

She wore complete black, or so good Doctor Finklestien remembered her. Her eyes were a gorgeous silver when she was happy, but a sinister red when something happened to bow against her. He, Jack, And the Mayor were the only ones who cared to remember the old Queen of Halloween, when it was at its scariest. The way her magic ran through her as she conjoured her own demons, made even her own black hair seem to stand on end. The way she made Halloween remind them of what it truely was, made the whole crowd shiver.

Halloween, the day Oogie was finally sealed away. The Doctor's Science, Nightshade's magic, and Jack's persuasiveness locked him away, and that was Nightshade's final act as a simple witch. She found herself at the top, enjoying her glory while it lasted, and trying to earn the love of a man who's blood had stopped running years before. She felt she was not good enough, and 10 years after Oogie's banishment had been forced on him, she left Halloween. She reminded them of darker times, and everyone was happy she was gone... Especially when they heard she was dead.

Halloween

It was quiet in anxiousness as the people of Halloween Town awaited their favorite Celebration of the Year. Like every year previously, they forgot the true meaning, only revived at the mention of Nightshade. It was also the 200th aniversary of Nightshade's disappearance. Was it to be the Greatest Halloween yet? Maybe...

The events proceeded as usual, up untill the Mayor's speech.

"I know none of you like to hear this, but it is the 200th Anniversary of our Former Queen Nightshade's disappearance. I'd just like to remind some of you to remember the reason our great town is named Halloween and why we have these celebrations. For 10 great years, 200 years ago, Blood Queen Nightshade made Halloween a Holiday Power. She made our town what it is now, and her Halloween Celebrations were enough to make my head spin. So Next year, as a tribute to our Former Queen, Jack and I have decided to try and copy her final Preformance as best as Skeletally possible," the Mayor said, his pale white face facing the crowd.

Doctor Finklestien waited at the back of the hall, listening carefully and noticing the strange figure in the path.

"You won't need to copy me," came a goulish voice enough to make even the Doctor's head flip open," I'm back, Halloween! You may not miss me( the figure proceeded up to the podium) but I have returned to my great people. You can keep your current King, as I am happy with the way he's kept my precious town..But I am most displeased with his Halloween Preformance."

Sally had felt her stitches begin to loosen as the woman allowed herself freedom from her black trench coat, and removed her almost screen like cap. Her black hair fell to the middle of her back, just as Jack remembered it, and her black dress hugged her body in almost the exact same way. Just as she had said, her eyes were a deep red.

"Have I taught you all nothing?" She screamed," Halloween is not a time to cower like children to simple little pranks! If you want Halloween, I'll give you my Halloween. And I'll start with my dear Trick-or-Treaters!"

Lock, Shock, and Barrel threw the doors open, running to Nightshade. They seemed very happy with her return, more than most would have expected when they dutifully served Oogie.

"Auntie Nightshade!" They screamed, jumping into her arms.

"Ah, my dear little things!" She smiled, her eyes were already returning to silver," Have you been as good as any excellent child of mine would?"

"Just the way you like us!" they smiled," We helped Oogie some, like you asked so we would know everything, and we irked Jack off alot for you!"

"Good, good. You really are my dearest creations!" Nightshade hugged them," Now get! You have more to do."

"Yes m'am! Everything will be ready when you get home!" Shock smiled, leading the rest of the trio out of the hall.

Doctor Finklestien smiled as he came up to the stage. He made eye contact with Nightshade unlike everyone else in the room. " Nightshade! At last, Halloween will return to normal."

"Doctor," Jack began," Have you known she was still alive?"

Nightshade smiled at the Pumpkin King's question, as did Doctor Finklestien. "Of course I did, I would never loose touch with my greatest Colleague."

"So you let the rest of us think you were dead?" Jack asked, turning to Nightshade.

"Well Apparently, it was better that way!" She said, her face ending up very close to his," If I hadn't been forced to resign you wouldn't be standing up here Skellington!"

"Forced?" the Mayor asked.

"Oh yes," the enraged witch said, looking over the whole crowd, noticing the witches try to leave," AND YOU STAY PUT!"

Her hand raised in a violent manor, unleashing from her fingers a red flash so elegant, Sally wouldn't have believed what it did. She watched it collide with the Tall & Short Witch, sealing them against one of the pews. She lowered her hand, an evil smile plastered on her face.

"Forced, oh yes.. Those girls there! They somehow found themselves at the head of the lesser Witches, and they decided to exile all of us you could retain their beauty and their power at the same time. Do you want my secret?" Nightshade said, still staring down the witches.

Niether answered...

" I bet you do. I bet all of you do! Look at the whole lot of you, rotting away from the inside!" she smiled," but then again, what am I saying. Most of you would already say the inside of me has rotted away.."

"Excuse me?" Sally said, looking up at her," Just why are you back?"

To reclaim what I lost, and return Halloween to prominense. And...To rid it of failed experiments like you," she said looking at Sally.

Before even Sally could react, Jack pushed at Nightshade angrily. His bony face was now sculpted in anger as he stared her down," Don't you EVER talk about Sally like that again."

"Ah...I see now..." Nightshade started to laugh," The Pumpkin King, in love with a doll of Rags! Its almost enough to make me scream!"

"I'm warning you, Nightshade. You are not on steady ground!" the Pumpkin King stared her down.

"Its so nice for someone to comfront me like you. No one here has the courage to face me. But remember Jack, It was me who confined Oogie to the walls he was in! There was enough compassion in my rotting heart for at least that! You can scream and curse me all you want over what I've said about these rags!" the Witch Stared back at him, her eyes crimson red

"Will you stop calling her-"

"Um...Nightshade, what is that gap in the side of your face?" Doctor Finklestien pointed out.

Nightshade retreated from her arguement to feel at the gap, and cursed loudly. It was exposing her bones, making it obvious once upon a time she was dead, and now she was becoming a skelliton. Nightshade bent over, and seem to claw at her face for a moment, also pulling the skin off of her hands. When she arose again, she was not the same woman who had entered the room moments ago. Her eyes were gone, her skin was gone, and she seemed to have lost everything else but her magic with it.

Jack couldn't help but stare. What had happened to the Elegant woman he had remembered from 200 years ago? Had she really rotted away, and became what he had been ever since?

"HA!" The Tall Witch Laughed," You ARE dead!"

"Oh yes. I have been for awhile. I just thought it would've been so much fun to walk in here and seem as if I had never left my dear Halloween."

This continued for sometime, before everyone was whipped out from fighting with eachother, and they allowed Nightshade to leave the Conference Hall. No one could see the tear stained bone behind her screen-like hat...

AN: Lock Devil, Shock Witch, Barrel Skeleton


	2. Chapter 2

Nightmare Before Halloween

Disclaimer: I don't own Nightmare Before Christmas...

Chapter 2: Nightshade's Requiem.. Sorrow Of the Deepest Kind

Nightshade walked the streets longer than anyone had ever remembered her to do before. She was not happy, her eyes a grey blur. Loneliness was taking its toll on this four hundred year old witch, and she could feel it in her bones. The life she had before Oogie was gone, she could see it just by looking around. What she knew was that she could forge a new one from ash, like raising the dead...

No, she didn't want to remember. The longer she stayed there, the longer she felt the unwelcome memories reclaim her. Days, nights, and weeks passed as Nightshade watched the people patiently, caring only for her dear Lock, Shock, and Barrel. They seemed like a family, Sally had noticed, when the witch came outside with them.. Was there something everyone did not know about the triad of Halloween's fiercest trick-or-treaters?

Nightshade had rarely spoken since Halloween, and it was now nearing Christmas. The people were wondering, and so was Jack. What made Nightshade so quiet when on Halloween night she seemed more than eager to speak? Someone knew, but wouldn't say anything, and that someone was Doctor Finklestien.

Jack walked into the doctor's lab expecting answers, but what he was about to get, he did not expect. It seemed the doctor had been expecting him though, as it seemed that various things Jack had never seen before were set up all around the room.

"I suppose you are wondering about Nightshade's silence?" The Doctor said turning his wheelchair to face Jack.

"I am, Doctor Finklestien. What could possibly make her so quiet? She was never like this from what I remember..." Jack said.

"From what you remember is exactly right Jack. I promised her I wouldn't remind you of this. You must have forgotten for a reason, but I feel it is necessary in order to preserver her from death. Broken hearts kill, Jack, it did her in once, I refuse to loose my dearest colleague to heart ache..." The doctor set a photo album on the experiment table and motioned for Jack to approach.

The page was opened to a wedding photo, and Nightshade was the bride, Jack did not recognize the man in the picture, but he had a feeling he knew who it was..

"Don't recognize him, hm? Not a suprise, after you get used to being bones, you forget your own face..." Doctor Finklestien smiled.

"Thats me? (the Doctor Nodded) Nightshade and I were married?" Jack asked in suprise.

The doctor laughed a little bit," Oh yes, and Nightshade was a very happy woman back then. Two years later she was pregnant, but you died, and became what you are now and didn't remember a thing... Imagine how crushing it must be to realize than your children's own father wouldn't remember them and your husband wouldn't recognize you..."

"So she just ignored me?"

" Ignored you is on the other end of the spectrum to what she did. She came back every Halloween to watch you, to visit her children, and came around July to visit as well. She never let anyone but the three of them and myself see her," The doctor said.

" Who are her -our- children?" Jack asked.

"Lock, Shock, and Barrel."

"Then why did they call her Auntie?" came Sally's voice from the door as she approached Doctor Finklestien and Jack.

"I suppose there is some sort of method to Nightshade's madness. Of course, we may never know it, but its her that made Lock, Shock, and Barrel stay as young as they are, and they like it that way. The reason they were in Oogie's care is because he owed Nightshade for saving his life," Doctor Finklestien said," After all, everyone would have liked it better if he was excecuted, but Nightshade's descision overruled the public, so he was sealed."

Sally held Jack's hand in comfort, and noticed that something was wrong...

"Why did she just let me forget?"

"She said you would be better off forgetting her. No one would like a King that had ties to her, because they'd think you'd be more like her. Of course she wasn't a tyrant, but she never agreed with the people."

Little did they know, Nightshade was outside the door, quietly listening to the whole thing, feeling a deeper sorrow than ever before. Why was it so compelling, the way Jack seemed so bothered by the conversation he had gotten himself in?

"If you want, you can have the photo albums, they were your's in the first place, Jack. Please don't speak to her of this, as I had said before, I had promised not to tell you," the doctor sighed.

"I'll take them doctor," Jack said quietly.

He picked them up, and left the Doctor's tower, not noticing the ever so silent Nightshade following him...


End file.
